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You haven't heard from me much this month. I've spent the month cleaning, organizing and catching up in the doll room. I've also been taking multiple classes on painting in acrylics.
Acrylics was my bane in college...expensive, working on 3 x 4' foot canvases on students' pennies. Every squeeze of a tube of paint, meant something I had to go without. Our teachers were hardly hands on...pretty much letting us pants-fly with little or no direction, but often with deep scarring criticism, disguised as teaching.
I had started with watercolors a few years back after my last knee failure and eventual replacement. I painted during Covid...explored online classes, experimented for fun and with no limitations or criticism. I thank you all for the encouragement.
Acrylic Classes online are great! I was truly encouraged with the color mixing and limited palettes used. The emphasis on value or darks and lights. I really wanted to paint without black, but concentrate on the wide values of colors dark to light...really a reverse way of thinking from watercolor where you work light to
dark.
A series of photos altered to show the palette and values in the shades of color.
Changing the photo to black and white, shows the gray scales...Where the darkest shades of a color should be. |
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My version...I did this twice, once on canvas and another on gessoed watercolor paper.
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Here you can see the stay wet palette, which keeps your paints fresh and usable...pretty much no waste this way.
Another scene from a class with Jed Dorsey, photo was drastically altered to increase the contrasts and values of color.
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selections 4 colors plus white.
This is the comp screen photo altered.
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I really worked this scene quickly and with a bit of abandon...using large brushes on gessoed watercolor paper---loved this working large and inexpensively.
12x18 watercolor paper gessoed.
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Well, I thought this isn't going to be so bad...learning lots, feeling confident, not wasting, experimenting with colors, values, compositions. Having FUN!
Burying myself in the idea of working/painting.
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Another class for radiant color mixing....
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Cadmium red medium, Magenta, Pthalo Green and Ultramarine blue, Lemon yellow and Cadmium yellow medium. I didn't plan on using them all, and really didn't. But mixing on the palette is a great way to see what you can do.
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Another Altered photo for another class....I increased the values and deepened the colors... I wanted to work on an intense sun source.
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My version: a bit too much fiddling and going to smaller brushes, colors overly intense, I may revisit this study again and take it down a few notches.
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| photo altered from DIana Shyne's. |
The final class an altered photo of Arizona by Diana Shyne....I heightened the colors and deepened the darks...thought this would be a fun and loose experience.
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Here's a closeup of the sketch. Feeling confident I got this.
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Another mixing study....Hmmm, not going to get that blue like the screen...but.
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Really planning on using these brushes only.
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After an hour or more...this is where this painting is at. Darks all blocked out, I'll have to come back in for another day.
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Palette when done, I circled the colors I had used...Magenta, Ultramarine blue, Lemon Yellow, White and Pthalo green. The rest are still wet leftovers from the other paintings.
NOW the next day, Today!
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I have no photo I worked from, basically painted as the instructor was painting, Michelle Gibbs. Lovely English lady---great in speaking with color...I just puttered on...
relaxed, intent, and mindless, maybe that was the issue, mindless. I didn't even have music on.
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New Color Study, a new Pthalo Blue, Quinacridone Magenta, Cadmium Yellow Med and white. I used a lid cover as a palette, since these were NEW colors and I wanted to see what the difference might be with no chance of mixing with other colors.
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Definitely working looser...patterns of light and darks...did not glance at the reference photo (I didn't even have it on screen, was following the blocking of the instructor and then took off on my own.)
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There are some bits of this painting I really love...even this 'floating' island of trees ...LOL.
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Okay, I quit and decided to clean both palettes and spread the paint on a blank page for collage or a future abstract project. Waste not, want not. Sometimes I hate being a child of Great Depression survivors.
I used a palette knife to scoop up the unused blobs of paint, then a brush to spread it a bit with water..working very quickly. I quickly filled a 12x18 page of watercolor paper with large triangular blocks of colors. I had watered down the blue/teals with white and yellow...the last to go on was some skipping reds applied with a palette knife.
Cadmium red med, basic red, and magenta mixed together and I scraped and spread them, scratching here and there and the mixture landed on top of everything else.
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I had taped the corners to the table top. I opened the black with thoughts of trees in the woods with a shadows in the snow, maybe a red sun throwing some rose light. Yea, that's what it was.
Black is so heavy and dark and I hadn't used it at all the whole month of classes. I worked with a huge scruffy brush, and soon my fingers were in the paint, then a palette knife scraped, cut, sliced. I pulled out more red, and added a huge blob of white to counteract that black. The white smeared then grayed, stirring into the blacks.
I was out of breath, my heart raced, sick to my stomach....I stared at the tabletop.
Scientists and Neurologists say we act 95% of the time out of our subconscious self. Basically whatever your old or immediate experiences are, your habits, and/or your routines; they are the historical guides into your unconscious thought processes and how you deal with your life.
I stuck the brushes and knife into a glass of water and walked away.
I had painted "Blood in the Snow"...
S Magle
No, my world isn't just full of insipid landscapes and happy colors.
But, after a whole month of hiding in them, it really hadn't helped.
Apparently this was my subconscious telling me to deal with reality.
Today, January 29, 2026, my journey...
I held my heart in my hands,
then scraped it on paper!
Thanks so much for visiting,
I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them.
OldNewGreenRedo, is an ad-free blog.
I do not endorse or receive any $$ for any products I may use. I enjoy showing how I use products,
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Thank you for your cooperation,
Sandi
Oh I need to find one of those stay wet palettes! What a great idea. Your comment about your college art classes reminds me of one of mine... I had a painting I was loving! Everything in my box was white and blue ceramic and I played with all the white and blue tones then my teacher criticized it, made me change it, and I HATED it. I even had several other students ask me why I had changed it since they had liked it better the first way too.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I learned about painting...was a Pakistani teacher...didn't criticize, but told me to get out of my head, and into my heart. But, it took years for me to apply that! Well after this last piece was done...I thought of him, again, 58 years later! Sandi
DeleteWell, they may have been your bane in college but time has served you well and these are truly terrific. I especially love the landscapes but the "Blood in the Snow" has a powerful energy to it. I'm so glad you show technique and process. I'm bad at that but I always appreciate it when I see it.
ReplyDeleteAs I just mentioned to Joanne, I had a painting instructor that told me to get out of my head and use my heart. And, I dearly thought of him after this was finished. Thanks for your comments and our art journey we share....some days I want to throw everything at the walls! Sandi
DeleteWell done. I like that you printed out in black and white and in intense colors to better understand your colors.
ReplyDeleteThanks, that's a trick that I learned from a class...I often look at my work now in black and white...to see if it is too monotone, or too intense, Thanks again, Sandi
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